A team assembled by Harbert Realty presents a proposed sign to replace the scrolling message board atop Two North Twentieth downtown. (Michael Tomberlin / mtomberlin@al.com)

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama – The Birmingham Design Review Committee this morning rejected plans to replace the lighted, scrolling message board sign atop the Two North Twentieth Building with what the committee members called a “glorified billboard” advertising Pepsi Cola.

Building owner, Harbert Realty, wants to shut down the iconic 26-foot tall, 176-foot wide lighted sign that has scrolled messages across the Birmingham skyline off and on since the 17-story building was built in the 1960s. Soft-drink giant, Pepsi, wants to pay to wrap the sign with a design that features its logo until Harbert is ready to spend up to $4 million to build a new digital replacement.

But at a meeting that, at times, grew contentious, the Design Review Committee said the sign looks too much like a billboard and has no place in the Birmingham skyline.

View full sizeOfficials present depictions of how the sign would look atop Two North Twentieth. (Michael Tomberlin / mtomberlin@al.com)

“What we have been reluctant to do is bungle it with a bold-face billboard,” Sam Frazier, chairman of the committee, told Harbert’s Tab Bisignani.

Harbert worked with Birmingham’s O2 Ideas, Buffalo Rock and Pepsi to get special approvals to create a new design that was unique to Birmingham – addressing a major complaint the committee had with a previous design.

Cheryl Morgan, a member of the committee, said the proposed sign still looked too much like a billboard and not like a piece of public art, which would be more acceptable.

As committee members continued to point out problems with the sign, Bisignani questioned whether the committee truly had any authority to dictate whether Harbert could replace the message board with a sign or not.

“We’ve tried to play nice,” he told the committee.

It was one of several contentious moments.

Harbert had brought a team that was obviously planning to go into an elaborate presentation when Frazier cut them short and told them to just get to the proposed design.

In the end, the committee denied the proposal with all but Richard Mauk voting against it. Mauk abstained.

Bisignani said the message board's technology is outdated and makes it too costly to operate and maintain. The sign, he said, would be a temporary measure until Harbert is prepared to spend up to $4 million on a modern, digital replacement.